I have been thinking of putting a garden plow and blade on my V-bike, a 250cc utility, which has a winch on it . Using the winch to raise and lower the attachments. I was wondering if any one has tried any type of a set up like this and has it worked ? I know a 250 wont have much power but I was kinda hopeing someone tried and has any experience with the v-bike doing this.

 

we used an '86 Suzuki 230 to plow snow, she worked hard, but was pretty capable with the dual range tranny. I honestly think it would be to much wear and tear on a Chinese made machine though. Using the winch to manipulate a plow is pretty standard these days.

 

I've thought about this myself and after some thinking decided you cannot pull a garden plow with an ATV....

You don't need a lot of power to pull a plow. One horse power will work fine whether it's from a gas powered engine, or a hay powered horse (which should roughly equal 1 horse power I would think).

But you would need to be geared way down, and the ATV would need to be really heavy. Think about how many pounds of force you would have to exert pulling the plow along at 10 inches deep and making a furrow a foot across. I've never measured it, but I would guess it to be 1000 lbs at least. That would require some really low gearing, and your quad must also weigh at least 1000 lbs too. Otherwise the tires would just spin. The horizontal pulling force cannot exceed the gravitational down force that gives traction. I guess that's why tractors (and horses) are really heavy.

I also suspect that is why no one makes a commercially available garden plow for ATV's. At least I couldn't find one when I looked.

If anyone has a different experience I would be very interested in hearing it...

 

I wouldnt do it..

 

hehe 1 hp? not likely- maybe if it was attached to a gear box with a 500 :1 reduction ratio- and if you have 10 hours to plow a drive way, and the plow blade was 6" wide and only 3" on snow on the groung!

you're not plowing 2' of snow at any length with a 1hp engine, not even close- hell- even my 45cc husky chain saw had 4hp!

I've been plowing snow (and loam / dirt) with my atv's for 5-6 years now- from 6" to 2'+ deep. I have a 75' x 30' drive way.
I had a 60" plow for my xp850- it would do pretty well until it was plowing too much- then the tires would slip (with very aggressive snow / mud tires & chains- and you're talking 1000 lbs combined weight with rider / plow & atv!

Chinese atv's can hardly handle the moderate stress of being ridden twice a month on a trail, never mind the force of hitting the snow with a 75lb (small) blade!

also, it's not just about pushing the fresh snow a distance, you also have to have enough grunt to push it up over the top or the berm or through the snow pile, or all you're going to accomplish is creating a big wide pile of snow.

You may be able to get away with plowing a little snow with a 250- but it's going to beat the snot out of your atv and you.

buy a snow blower and be done with it.

 

ok, just wondering if anyone had tried it with a chinese , I have had mine about 3 years now and no major problems along with a 300 cc for the wife. Neither have given any big problems, and I use the 250 on 2 acreas that I have for spraying and hauling . I did run across a "soil buster disk plow" at the local Co-op that uses a receiver hitch set up . Its super heavy and has two V shaped sets of notched blades on it. Says its just the ticket for feed plot ground breaking. My area has numerous rocks in the soil and a tiller just wont get it. I know the frame of a Chinese quad is super light but I have taken it over several boulders with no problem of course at a very slow pace.

Just wondering how the Chinese quad would handle garden work.

 

I agree with you . This is the conclusion I came to some time ago after giving it some thought.

What got me thinking about this was the fact that I like large gardens, but I'm getting older and don't have the stamina I once had digging a large garden by hand. A plow would really be nice (and I think leesumm and I are both talking about dirt plows and not snow plows). If a horse can pull a plow, and a horse puts out roughly 1 horsepower, then why not use an ATV?

That's what got me thinking. If one horse power equals 33,000 foot pounds per minute, and if the force required to pull a plow through soil is 1000 pounds (a number I pulled completely out my rear, BTW...), then I should be able to plow at 33 feet per minute using just one horsepower. That seems a lot faster than digging by hand...

But then the practical issues rear their ugly head. To pull at 1000 pounds requires substantially higher downward force on the quad than that to give traction, and that means the quad has to weigh a lot more than 1000 pounds. Then there is the gearing. Yes, it would have to be geared *way* down. But five hundred to one? I'd be curious about your math on this one... If we're pulling 1000 pounds through a 500:1 reduction then the ATV is only capable of putting out 2 pounds of force?

I think you're verifying my thinking. It is not practical for any lightweight vehicle to pull a plow. And even if it was, gearing is the other issue. Hence my skepticism...

 

I have come up with a 10" Brinly single molboard plow, it uses a sleeve hitch. I am fairly good with a welder and some steel. I am going to fashion a reciever hitch for either the 300 or 250 and use the winch for now to raise and lower . Where I live the ground is mainly rock and sandy soil. Using a rear tine tiller just beats H.... LL out of me. I am thinking this will work as long as I dont snage something heavy like a big boulder and twist the frame. I did this same set up on a J.D. yard mower with all turn wheels once before and had to change the tires to a traction tire to get any grip. But, the ground was thick black Mo. gumbo and it wouldnt pull and keep traction.
With success on this project I will post some pics and maybe a video of the results .

 

I would be very interested in the results whether they be good or bad. Armchair physics is one thing, real world results is another .

This is one case where I would really, really like to be wrong. I would love to be able to pull a plow with an ATV...

On the rear tine tiller, are you doing this by hand or is your tiller ATV mounted? I'm currently in the process of mounting a tiller on the rear of my ATV. It's stalled at the moment because I just am so short of time. But the goal is to have it working completely by next spring.

 

I have a lot of extra work before I can get started with what I want to do. I only had a little 110v welder which wouldnt do much. I went up to my Mom's place and got a pick up load of my dads tools and electric and gas welders. Now I have what it takes to do the work but I have to wire my shop to handle the bigger welder and cutoffs. Then I can start to work on whats in my head for the atv's.
I am using a rear tine tiller on the garden area now , but with all the rocks that Arkansas grows in the soil, the tiller is a killer. Your mention of mounting the tiller on the atv is interesting to me. I have thought about that. A farm store in town has a pull behind tiller about 32 inches or so with a B& S engine on it. But at a price of $1500 I think I can do better . When I get all the ideas in my head working behind the atv I will post some pics of the results for those interested .